Discharge hopper with floating load cell support to facilitate flow control through proppant handling system
AssigneeQuickthree Technology, LLC
InventorRonald Whelan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods are disclosed for receiving a continuing supply of proppant from a proppant conveyor through an inlet of a discharge box; enabling the continuing supply of proppant to move through the discharge box on one or more surfaces within the discharge box between the inlet and the outlet of the discharge box; repeatedly obtaining signals from a first plurality of load cells physically supporting the discharge box while the proppant moves through the discharge box, wherein each of the signals represents a weight, at a corresponding moment, of the discharge box and the proppant inside the discharge box; and controlling a speed of the proppant conveyor automatically based on the signals from the first plurality of load cells.
Claims29
A method comprising:
- receiving a continuing supply of proppant from a proppant conveyor through an inlet of a discharge box;
- enabling the continuing supply of proppant to move through the discharge box on one or more surfaces within the discharge box between the inlet and the outlet of the discharge box;
- repeatedly obtaining signals from a first plurality of load cells physically supporting the discharge box while the proppant moves through the discharge box, wherein each of the signals represents a weight, at a corresponding moment, of the discharge box and the proppant inside the discharge box;
- and
- controlling a speed of the proppant conveyor automatically based on the signals from the first plurality of load cells.
A proppant handling system comprising:
- a discharge box;
- a proppant conveyor configured to provide a continuing supply of proppant to a blender hopper via the discharge box;
- wherein the discharge box comprises:
- a housing that defines an inlet and an outlet;
- and
- one or more surfaces inside the housing, wherein the one or more surfaces accommodate a flow of the proppant, under the influence of gravity, along the one or more surfaces through a portion of the discharge box between the inlet and the outlet;
- and
- a plurality of load cells physically supporting an entirety of the discharge box,
- wherein each of the plurality of load cells is configured to produce a time varying signal or sequence of signals that represents a time varying weight of the discharge box and a portion of the continuous supply of proppant inside the discharge box at specific times;
- a control system configured to adjust a speed of a motor driving the proppant conveyor in response to and in accordance with the time varying signal or sequence of signals from the load cells.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.